Interview with Sleep Keepers

RYL: “Tomorrowland” is the name of your new single, what was the main difficulty you encountered writing it?

SLEEP KEEPERS (http://www.sleepkeepersband.com/) Talana, the singer: I actually cannot explain how this strange word “Tomorrowland ” came to my mind. I was on my way to the studio listening to some American band and suddenly there were those first lines and the melody in my head.

It was kind of mesmerizing to watch how the song evolved from being played on the electric quitar and drums to a totally acoustic track, how the vocals changed from tender to aggressive. It took us almost a year to understand what we wanted to say with that song. People see too much darkness and despair in the lyrics of Tomorrowland but it’s a song about hope really.

RYL: Have you done already a few gigs? What was the reaction of the fans to the new songs?

SLEEP KEEPERS : Sure, but we’ve played only acoustic versions of all our songs so far. We’re determined not to have any shows till we release our new album. Kinda keep it a secret:) The audience has always been really nice to us, actually. Maybe that’s due to acoustic versions: it’s always felt like playing for our old friends, the atmosphere at the gigs is always so unbelievably cosy.

RYL: How do you usually write the lyrics of your songs?

SLEEP KEEPERS : Talana, the singer: I just write the lyrics everywhere. It can be a taxi, a bathroom or some crowded place during rush hour – pretty much anywhere. The key point is to write the lyrics for the whole song at once and along with the vocal line. If I write only half of the song now, it’s highly unlikely I will finish it later.

RYL: Tell us everything about “Room #1”….

SLEEP KEEPERS : “Room #1” is one of the first songs we’ve written and it’s probably our band’s trademark. There’s a double meaning behind every line. You can think of Room #1 as of the 1st studio where we wrote a lot of our songs and which got demolished completely during the reconstruction of that area of our city. We miss it a lot.

Room #1 also refers to a hospital and/or death ward. It’s about pretending to be free but remaining the same people who are going mental inside the prison they’ve built themselves.

RYL: When did you write your last song? What inspired you?

SLEEP KEEPERS : The last sketch that was turned into an actual song was “Back on the road”. Our bass player just joined our band and showed me his instrumental track named “Road”. I wrote the lyrics that very day. We were going through some hard times and this song symbolizes the new way we’ve chosen and that we’re not going to give up that easily.

RYL: Do you remember the day you wrote “No one’s a loser”?

SLEEP KEEPERS : Now that’s a really difficult question! I normally do but this song seems to have come from nowhere. I can’t even tell what it was about, originally. So weird. Maybe that’s why fans keep telling us it’s a spooky song.

RYL: Which was the sickest show you have done until today?

SLEEP KEEPERS : We truly hope the sickest one is yet to come:)

RYL: Which was the best Rock song ever written?

SLEEP KEEPERS : Gosh, too many to list. Let it be Kill Hannah’s “Mouth to Mouth”

RYL: and the best lyrics you’ve ever heard?

SLEEP KEEPERS : Umm, I’d probably name almost all the early songs by Linkin Park.